ICANN approve new ".cats" domain

ICANN, the American internet authority, today authorised the use of a new ".cats" top-level domain name for websites dealing in predominantly feline content, particularly photographs of cats. Internet experts warn that millions of man-hours are lost to cat-related online distractions each year, however early attempts to filter corporate networks failed as hackers invented a new form of slang to evade the filters. They call it "lol-speak" and, for example, "kitteh" would mean "cat".

Because many innocent family photos include one or more cats, ICANN have provided an official definition of content that should be categorised under ".cats". This includes any website predominated by cat photos, as well as all photographs of wet cats, cats that resemble Hitler, cats adorned with poorly spelled captions, small cats in small containers, and so-called "ceiling" cats. Photographs of cats compiled into dancing animated GIFs and videos of cats chasing or escaping from things also fall under the new rules.

It is hoped that the new domain will prevent impressionable children seeing the images and copying them, with the associated drop in language skills.